Do you wear contact lenses – are you truly revolting or a strictly hygiene only? Share with Specsavers – you could win £250 NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

The team at Specsavers would love to all about your habits (good or bad) with your contact lenses.

We all know hygiene and eyes is very important – so do you tend to toe the line and follow instructions to the letter? Or are you a bit {ahem} lax in that department? How about when you were younger – or had different lenses? How do you dispose of disposable lenses? Does your DP wear them and leave them lying around when they should be in the bin?

Specsavers say "Here at Specsavers we like to make is easy for contact lens wearers - wearing contact lenses gives you freedom and convenience. And at Specsavers, when you buy contact lenses you get more than just the lenses. Our all-inclusive package not only gives you some fantastic benefits but is also an easy way to pay for your lenses. We'll give you a pair of glasses from our £45 range or designer frames from just £35, full aftercare, future sight tests as recommended by your optician and we'll deliver your lenses and solutions, at no extra cost."

Share your habits – good and bad - and everyone who does will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £250 voucher from here

Please note Specsavers may use your comments - anon of course - on their pages on MN, on their social media or possibly elsewhere - please only post if you're happy with this.

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

I've only worn cosmetic coloured lenses in the past, but I was always very careful with hygiene as I was working in an opticians at the time, so had to lead by example!

I have always been strict about hygiene with contacts.

I currently use monthly disposables. I write the date I start using each lens onto the box to help me keep track, same with each bottle of solution.

I wash my hands before inserting/removing. As for disposal, I just wrap them in a piece of kitchen paper and bin them. Although my DS and I had a bit of fun with the first pair; we put them in a pot and poured boiling water on them to see if they would melt. They sort of did, we might have to try again for confirmation

My DD wants lenses, she's 14. I know she could have them, but until I can be sure she'll be careful with the hygiene, I'm not paying for them.

I don't wear contacts and not like to put something direct to my eyes

I wear continuous wear monthlies, but do take them out before bed to give my eyes a rest. I just keep them in their case but don't usually wash my hands specially before putting them in, as I take them out just before bed when I've cleaned my hands anyway, and put them in first thing before getting up. I also sometimes get things caught under them during the day, and then I usually just give them a wiggle with my finger to dislodge whatever it is - if it is particularly stubborn I resort to rinsing them in water but that is rare.

I wear glasses and lenses depending how my mood and occasion takes me.

I wear dailies and carry a pair in my handbag so I can put them in and take them out anywhere. My hygiene is a bit hit and miss... because they are dailies I know they are sterile, but I can pop them in and out without the need of a mirror, so I often do it in the car/on the train etc and don't always wash my hands prior to doing so.

I wear daily disposables and admit to not being too careful with hygiene :-( I do wash and dry my hands before I put them in but when it comes to taking them out I don't, I just pull them out wherever I am when I want them out!

I once took one out and dropped it and the dog ate it oops!

I only tried contact lenses once. I could put them in, but could not get them out for the life of me!

Does anyone actually follow the optician's official advice re lenses? I try to, but sometimes if my eye is wrecking me and there's nowhere to put the lense & I need to keep it moist - (eg, if I'm driving and a speck of dust has found its way into my eye) - then I HAVE to put it in my mouth for a bit...either until I get home, or until the speck of dust etc has come off. I've NEVER had an issue in the 25 yrs of wearing lenses regarding hygiene.
However, I DO make sure (strangely so it seems, as I am so slapdash in other ways) that I discard the solution & holder at the end of the month.
Oh and - haha - I have made one pair of monthly disposables last up to 7 weeks before...

So I am hygienic, and I'm not.

Daily disposables here, but not every day - I wear glasses maybe 30% of the time. Helps to balance the cost and give my eyes a rest. On a lens day, I put them in as soon as I'm up - never wash my hands first as towel fluff/soap residue is agony on the eyeballs! Likewise when I take them out - I'm only touching the lens for a sec before it goes into the bin anyway. I have fallen asleep with them in... Yeowch...

I was quite strict with my cleaning & conditioning & storage of my gas permeable lenses but...

Maybe I should have changed & cleaned storage cases more frequently.
Not rinse lens under cold tap water before inserting in eye.
Use cleaning products past expiry date.

Monthly disposables here, but always got 6 weeks out of them. Wash hands before touching them as freaked out by amoeba stories in the press sending people blind...

But they quite often get washed down the sink, instead of the bin...

Unhappy at the moment as I get crusty red eyes after just one day of wear, need to make an appointment but been buying lenses online...

I use dailies - the worst is when you run your eye, lose your lens somewhere round your eye, have to fish it out and put it in again. Horrible!

I use daily disposables as they are so easy to use. I do sometimes fall asleep with them in which can sometimes seem to irritate my eyes.

I wear them every now and then. I have the daily ones so just throw them away when done.

Nope... I prefer glasses.

Shantishanti I could have written your post even down to the crispy lenses ;) in fact I had to check it wan't me!

I've worn lenses for 25 years. I've had continuous wear ones for the past 10 ish years, as Shanti says it's like having 20/20 vision again.

I am scrupulous with hygiene but thats partly because I don't have to do it much, I take them out for a minimum of 12 hours once every 2 weeks.
I can be a bit forgetful about remembering to change them - usually my eyes sort of tell me, I keep meaning to add a recurring phone reminder!

I also make sure that I get a contact lens check yearly, always told that my eyes are really healthy so that's good enough for me!

I used to wear daily disposables and was very strict about hygiene. However, as I got older I developed stress eczema that affects my eyelids and just under my eyes and is extremely itchy. I had to give up on them because of that and I just rubbed my eyes without thinking. I miss them for going out and sports.

I used daily disposables, and I am really lax with hand washing beforehand I also leave them in the sink when I'm done so DH often has crunchy lenses in his sink water!

I wear continuous wear lenses and have for about 8 years. I started with monthly disposable but found I worse them less and less because it was easier to grab glasses when I was in a rush. Back then (about 15 years ago) I always washed my hands when I put the lenses in, disinfected cases, changed cases every new pack... Not so much now. Now I shower with my lenses in (if I take them out, I'm as well using monthlies). I don't swim with them, but I did once stupidly jump in a river on an adventure holiday wearing them (then realised those were my spares and I had no glasses. Amazingly no harm done, but won't be doing it again!)

Part of the reason for my less rigourous approach is that with continuous wear lenses you don't get cases or solutions. I think a voucher in lens pack for a discounted small bottle of solution and lens case would be good to encourage everyone to rest eyes at times (unless that's advice specific to me, but so far everyone with continuous wear lenses has said they take them out for a while). I used to buy a "flight pack" with 100ml bottle of solution and lens case, then keep that in my bag so I could rinse lenses if they get dirty or dry. I should really start that again.

I've worn contacts for years - not daily disposables - and was very lax indeed about washing my hands, and hygiene in general. On one occasion I scratched the surface of my eyeball and had to cringe away from the light, like a vampire for a few days, until the scratch healed.

Then in 2011 just as I started to use daily disposables, my right eye became so sore and painful, I went to A&E who sent me to Moorfields. I had a serious eye infection and was 24 hours away from 'going blind' in one eye. Moorfields saved my eye and I was so grateful, I've set aside some money in my Will.

The actual infection in my eye was a streptococcal infection 'with fluffy edges' which makes it sound like a CBeebies infection. It's also something that is more readily found on FEET!!!!

A year later, I contracted another eye infection in the same eye, even though I was now meticulous in washing my hands and using new lenses every day. Back to Moorfields who were sympathetic about my 'very bad luck' and said they would ban anything other than daily disposables now as 'it's easy for an infection to get between the lens and the eye'.

I don't know what the moral of the story is except:

THANK GOD FOR MOORFIELDS

And: Always wash your hands with soap and water before putting in or taking out a lens.

Lioness you can buy solution Anna case from your optician or just any chemist. Even Tesco has it! Also saline and eye drops. Buy.

i wear glasses as i really can't bear anything going close to my eyes let alone put on them i think i would be having a panic attack at the thought of having to wear lenses

Eek, This thread has made me realise how utterly weird and gross I have become! I wear monthly disposables but rarely know how long I have had the last pair in, usually only changing them when the last change seems quite a while ago. I have hundreds of spare bottles of fluid as I never use it all, sometimes reusing the fluid from the night before, as I figure I rinse the lenses in solution before I put them in so it's fine. Then sometimes I'll chuck old solution on the floor to save me going all the way to the bathroom (DH pet hate, can't imagine why!) gross enough but I have also occasionally lost lenses round the back of my eye when I have absentmindedly rubbed my eyes when tired. Very gross blinking away until a corner appears back around the side which I can slide into view, bleurgh. I have also had an infection in one eye, not from being unhygienic (weirdly after all this I always wash my hands carefully before putting them in) but because I forgot I had already taken one out and tried too hard to take it out twice ('bleurgh' again) thankfully only scratching my retina mildly. Since then I always take the left one out first and put the right one in first, without fail.

I now wear dailies as I was getting eye infections with the monthly ones - even with good hygiene. They have been much better and more convenient.

I used to wear them but I was too lazy to always clean them properly!